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Congratulations to Belle Vue in winning the Play Off Final. The atmosphere on the night was electric, and credit has to be given to the Aces supporters who turned out in numbers. Its a pity the camera's did not capture the atmosphere, as I can tell you the atmosphere was there. The Aces supporters celebrated Polish style with smoke bombs and flares, which I did not mind apart from the smell, which smelt like dog rubbish. The referee decisions were in my opinion mostly correct after looking at the replays on the phone. I think Belle Vue came into the meeting to simply defend the 12 point lead and frustrate the Tigers, and we were chasing the in the meeting all night. But cannot fault our riders who put in 100% effort, but the Aces were just to good for us over the two legged final, and the signing of Robert Lambert as I suspected swung the advantage to Belle Vue. We now move onto the League Cup Final as consolation winning silverware against Kings Lynn so we are still in with a chance of winning something. Finally for me the Play Off's should stay, the tension and excitement that they create means they should stay.

One of the nicest guys in speedway, has been severely unfortunate in his career, always seems to get bad injuries. With a family to think of, I think it’s the right call. All the best Sarj

Maybe make this into a knockout round robin... first leg at Glasgow, they can throw it get knocked out, the 2nd leg at Leicester, vs Poole, we get knocked out and then Poole can ride their home leg against nobody gloriously winning the trophy in front of a packed Wimborne Road, waving their phones about to Sweet Caroline being played over the PA

Which is far better than the so called premiership

From a very reliable source who I will not reveal I will be amazed if complin signs for any southern team as the travelling from North Yorkshire is just to far and costly.

Maybe THREE trophies could be given out...? The team that "wins the league" BEFORE the play offs gets one... The team that actually "wins the league" in the play offs obviously will get one.. And the team that "wins the league" AFTER the league has already been won (twice), gets one... Would make a great end to the season and mean potentially 50% of all the teams can become "Champions".. A 'Win/Win' if you like... Or a 'Win/Win/Win' in UK Speedways case. They could even run a special 3 way "Ultimate Champions" play off before November with a leg of the final held at each track... I am sure there wouldnt be an issue fitting the dates in as one team will obviously pull out, like seems to happen in 3 way finals....

Post of the year. Incredible sportsmanship, and I know how much it hurts, but to lose and be this gracious will make it all the better when you eventually win the top flight title, which you will. Huge respect.

The only way we can see if Belle vue could beat Sheffield without Lambert in the side is to go back to the 4 league matches we have ridden against each other this season. Home and away first meetings Belle vue on agg won 94 to 86 .On the second meetings Sheffield won 93 to 87. Thats one each add all the scores together to get a winner and the score is 181 to 179 in favour of belle vue another just 2 point win so we kinda beat you three times on aggregate.

Will that be r/r at 1 or guest

Can anyone provide a single example in the history of speedway when a race non-finisher was awarded three points for a race win, ahead of two other riders who had legitimately finished the race?

Someone has started on the alcopops early.

I'd like to see the Cook brothers at Leicester, they'd be wasting their time, treading water down in the CL... maybe offer them a contact before the CL pay offs this coming Friday? Some exchange deal with Joe Thompson & Max Clegg maybe?

Except you ard ignoring the rulebook that clearly states the result of a race can not be changed once declared. And secondly these are simply decisions where you disagree with that of the referee.

Maybe paying for three meetings from one home leg is the issue? Especially for Glasgow as not many Poole or Leicester fans will be in attendance I would think.. Especially given the way the competition has been devalued by the way it has been allowed to drift on without the clear priority and focus any "Final" of a competition should have been given..

Oh yeah... forgot, you guys are still down in the CL

I thought the heat 3 decision was wrong and should have been all 4 back but on reflection over the two meetings Sheffield didn't lose because of the referee, Holder and Howarth were to blame, Howarth was particularly poor at Sheffield and Holder seems to not be too clever at times and was outsmarted by Kurtz, you can't expect Kurtz not to fight for his position just because you are friends, it seemed obvious what Kurtz was going to do and Holder should have seen it coming.

Danny king has been doing it since April!

IF the final(s) are abandoned will Glasgow, Leicester and Poole be fined for not completing their fixtures? Nothing would surprise me in British Speedway any more. This has been another season of embarrassment with a team running 99% without their signed No1, another signing a British Champion knowing he wouldn't be there for long, a team dropping out, a team signing a GP rider for 3 meeting in the quest for silverware and who know what other own goals?

Mikebv has put his finger on it there! As a died-in-the-wool Tigers fan for 56 years, I'm actually glad to see Belle Vue win the title, for the simple reason that it highlights the sheer hypocrisy and corruption of the ruling authorities in allowing a rider who has shunned British racing for three years in pursuit of personal treasure to suddenly turn up for three matches in the colours of a team for which he has no past or present connection and have the audacity to collect a champion's medal on the rostrum. A "ringer" by any definition. Surely the authorities will now be shamed into ensuring no such aberration will ever occur in the future. As for the real championship, whichever team wins the Sheffield v Ipswich tie two weeks' time can hold its heads high and rightly claim to be the season's champions - an accolade won over the course of twenty matches home and away and without recourse to underhand and devious chicanery, the stench of which will always hang around this alleged Belle Vue "victory".

Berwick have done a lot of good work putting in a pathway from Duns to NJL to National League to Championship then hopefully onwards for riders. It's slowly starting to bear fruit now. They deserve a lot of credit for it.

Birmingham?? Try Ellesmere Port!

Still makes a total mockery of this circus,,,, a meeting that potentially could change who finishes top thus changing who faces who in the play offs,,, after the play offs. Absolute joke

The forum Inspector Clouseau strikes again, or to put it another way no sh*t sherlock.

Sheffield Heat Leaders.. 18 off 14 rides in leg one.. 25 off 14 rides in leg two.. 43 off 28 rides in total.. And that includes a gifted 5 points in Heat Fifteen of leg two which was a dead rubber.. A collective average of 6.14 for the three Sheffield HL's.. And some still suggest it was 100% the refs fault that the Tigers lost...

Maybe you could teach your own team manager!!

At least he receives what he's promised at Poole!

To be completely correct (given thet there is another meeting schedule there next Friday) this meeting should be titled: The Last But One Farewell to Armadale (unless we sneak another year here) Scottish Open Championship @ Edinburgh But everyone would have to buy new programme boards to fit the programme if they printed that as the title. Edit: Just spotted this post. Things start to make sense

However some clubs are getting better. Poole been a lot better since Dan Ford been doing day to day running of the club

If the interest was there I'd gladly run a bus

And if Musielak had just fell on his own but it meant the race to be stopped, and then Kurtz's engine blew after the red light had come on, therefore meaning he didnt cross the line, the race would have been awarded to Brady as he was leading (under power) at the time of the stoppage... As with all awarded races... You dont have to cross the line to win it...

I thought the atmosphere came over ok, you could hear the fans every time an Aces rider pulled off a move, I was totally engrossed in it, only heard the same from the home crowd a couple of times though. It was one of those wish I was there nights, brilliant support from the travelling faithful, that sight and sound must have given the riders a lift, definitely worth a few points on the night, who knows if that's what inspired Tom Brennan to greater heights, I did wish I was there.

Make sure he’s signed that contract in triplicate before announcing it lol.

Over the 2 meetings all BV riders just raised their game at important moments of both meetings, which Sheffield just failed to do. When you see Tom Brennen had 16+1 over the 2 meetings also shouldn't be underestimated, having seen him as a kid at Eastbourne, he's still learning but seems to have the fire like Dan Bewley, just hope he continues on the same path.

Exactly. Let's not make excuses. Sheffields top rider didn't turn up for either match. Plus had no back up from (track specialist) Kyle howarth & Ellis. Both teams had bad luck, let's not forget belle Vue had 2 riders missing for most of it but imo Belle Vue wanted it more. Sheffield were almost trying to find problems and someone to blame. From heat 1 Sheffield had a big advantage to jump all over BV and kill the match off early but they couldn't capitalise and heat 3&4 were close. It's was almost desperation from Sheffield towards the end but BV held their nerve.

"Good, hard riding, just what we want to see"... Would have been the comment a few years ago...

There might only be one league match to ride & the pairs however having Riss back is massive. I think everyone is in agreement that the side needs to be built around Doyle & Riss next term

A Poole 2023 thread... sounds like you've already given up on 2022!

I thought the referee did well with some difficult decisions to make. Well done Belle vue.

I think we've got a half decent chance, what might catch us out is most of the Stars won't have had any/much competitive action over last couple of weeks so may be a little less sharper, particularly out of the start. Hope I'm wrong and Sheffield have another disappointing week

Hopefully get a few fans over from Newcastle to get there speedway fix

Will there be an experienced "speedway professional" on board, to work with BSPL and be a safe pair of hands to prevent the inexperieced owners being ripped apart by the sharks?

Maybe not but nobody knows the reasoning behind pulling out. To be honest it will be kept in house and rightly so.

Phil Griffin should be on the buttons for next week’s meetings so things will be in safe hands.

Think the restriction on reintroduction is more to do with dropped riders than injured ones Plus at the end of the day they make it up to suit and just the use the "best interests" clause as a catch all should it be needed If the Witches want Riss in 2023 he will be there regardless of how any regulation is currently written

A rider taken out of a declaration due to injury can be reinstated at any time later in the season

Well done to Belle Vue, nice moment for the 2 younger riders to seal the title. Pleased for Mark Lemon too.

Kurtz to Leicester 2023.

A 6 team league and still unable to organise and fufill outstanding fixtures is shocking really

I liked the one of world finals in the 60’s/70’s, even though Wembley was not the best race track and the only “away” world final I saw was 1976, Katowice, went specifically to see PC win it, and he did. Now I can see 10 “world finals” in one year, generally the 15 best riders in the world at that point in time. Going back to a 1 meeting world final would be a backward step IMO.

I have said before that I liked the World Finals. However, it was the most flawed system possible; we just didn't realise it because we didn't know anything else Do you really want to go back to a system that was never designed to qualify the best riders in the world? Where qualification was based more on nationality than ability? Where everybody rode in a different amount of meetings? Where a couple of good rides could make you the "best rider in the world"? It did seem more enjoyable back then, but when you look at old videos from back in the day, the racing was generally no better than what we see today.